Symbolism in Preaching

SYMBOLISM IN PREACIDNG IN THIS article we shall examine (1) the essential function of the Christian preacher; (~) the two modes of communication which this function involves; (3) the main problems confronting the preacher today with regard to these two aspects of his task; and (4) suggestions for solving these problems. (1) Christ, the Word, said of his own preaching that the words he spoke, the message he bore, were not of his own coining, but that he spoke only as the Father had bidden him speak (Jn. xiv, 10); in this he is obviously a model for his own messengers (apostoloi) , the original disciples whom he commissioned to teach whatsoever he had commanded them, and their successors down through the ages. In ancient Greece the pedagogue (paidagogos) was a slave whose duty it was not to teach the boy but to lead the boy safely to school, to his teacher; similarly the office of the Christian preacher is to lead the faithful to the Word who is their teacher, to prepare them as best he can for their schooling in the words of the Word. So St. Paul declares in his first letter to the Corinthians that it was Christ who sent him to preach, and to preach only the gospel. He had no concern with " any high pretensions to eloquence, or to philosophy," but only with "God's message to you"; he would have nothing to do with "an orator's cleverness," with rhetoric, "for so the cross of Christ might be robbed of its force" (I, 17; II, 1-5) : his only purpose was to speak "of Jesus Christ, and of him as crucified " (II, ~) , i. e., to help his hearers to enter with minds and hearts into God's wisdom, hitherto hidden and secret (II, 7) but now made known through and in the Christian Mystery of the Tree. 46 SYMBOLISM IN PREACHING 47 (~) In present-day colloquial language we use the word "mystery" in the sense of a baffiing problem to be solved by detection. Here we must think of it as meaning a profound, vital, religious truth: the Truth which is the eternal Word, communicated to us principally through the words of the scriptures , the words spoken, the events described; but these words and events, because of the profundity of their meaning, need to be explicated if we are to understand them rightly and assimilate them fully. The explication is the essential function of the preacher who represents the teaching authority of the Church as " opening " to us the scriptures. But the Church has two ways of opening the scriptures and communicating the truth; and both ways are necessary to us since each provides the necessary complement to the other. The language of the Bible is essentially the language, not of scientific or reasoned prose, but of poetry in the wide sense of the term: of imagery, of parable and paradox, of the Johannine paroimiai or allegories, of symbol. The Church opens the scriptures to us (a) by making use of this same language of symbol, e. g., in its sacramental ritual, and (b) by re-stating the Biblical message in" prose": in the formulas of creed and catechism, in the technical language of theology, and in the elucidation of formulas and theological propositions in everyday terms. Christ spoke to the multitudes in parables and indeed did not speak to them without parables (Mk. iv, 34) ; and the purpose of this method of teaching was not, as has sometimes been supposed, to hide his meaning from them but on the contrary to communicate his meaning through an idiom which simple, unlearned people could easily understand and which appeals to, and evokes a response from, not merely the mind but the heart, the whole personality. Moreover, symbol-language can take us deeper into mystery than the language of conceptual thinking can, precisely because it is the property of symbol to communicate realities for which no conceptsand therefore no reasoned formulas-exist. But this very pro- 48 GERALD VANN fundity involves a danger of misunderstanding. Scientific prose seeks to prevent misunderstanding by excluding ambiguity and being clear and distinct and univocal; symbol is deeply significant precisely because...